Episode 765: The Holiday Industrial Complex : Planet MoneyWhere do holidays like National Potato Chip Day and Argyle Day come from? We trace the roots of one made-up holiday until we find out who is running the global holiday machine.

Today, we want to wish you a happy Pet Owners Independence Day! And, a static-free International Amateur Radio Day! Also, a calming National Stress Awareness Day. Today is all of that and more. There are too many holidays to count.

It seems like there are legions of people inventing holidays to get people to buy more things. But even more of them are just... weird. So we figured if we could follow the events that got one of these questionable holidays on TV, then maybe there was a way to find out who is running the holiday machine.

We picked National Splurge Day. It was easy enough to find coverage about it. But few people wanted to talk about how it wound up on their television shows.

Today on the show, we journey to the center of the holiday industrial complex. And we go on a trip that takes us from harried TV news bookers to the halls of Congress to a storage locker in Chicago.

Imagine you could call up a friend and say, "Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy." Now imagine that's actually a fun evening. That's what we're going for at Planet Money. Want to know more? Check out our "about" page. Want to connect with the Planet Money team? Send us an email.